Conor Harrington at the Paris leg of the Underbelly project (photo: Martha Cooper)

This fortnight’s edition of Hot Press magazine hit the stands on Wednesday, with a big interview conducted by my good self with Irish-born and London-residing street and fine artist Conor Harrington.

It kicks off a mini-series I’m working on for the magazine about different aspects of street art, where I’ll touch base with some of the key players in the various outdoor art scenes linked to Ireland.

Sometimes dismissed as vandalism, the scene of recent years has not only produced fascinating work in its own right but also launched some remarkably successful careers.

In this issue, Conor spoke to me at length about what drives artists to brave the wrath of the law and paint illegally and how his work took him on a dark excursion into the bowels of the Paris Metro as a participant in the very rare Underbelly project.

Owners of vacant properties can register with Dublin City Council as a vacant space since the end of 2011 and make it available to creative individuals or groups who may need a home for one to six months. Posing as a match-maker, Dublin City Council proposes to put both parties in contact so they can work out the details of the rental through the Cultural Use of Vacant Spaces initiative.

Dublin City arts officer Ray Yeates launched the initiative shortly after his appointment in August 2011 and launched the registry that December to encourage both landlords and artists to make contact. He explained that historically, the council’s property unit has always tried to match people and the properties it owns.

“Dublin hasn’t had as much difficulty up to now with empty properties,” he said. “But we have increasing amount of empty spaces now. We would like to increase artistic activity and visibility, while offering a new social and commercial purpose to the owners of the buildings. That way, the arts continue to make the great contribution to the city that they do, it’s just another avenue.” (more…)

Creativity and art have resurrected in Ireland, with increasing amounts of art-related entertainment and activities emerging from the gloom.

Art Clash is one of the latest creative initiatives on the Dublin art scene, offering a series of night classes, covering topics as varied as burlesque performance, stencil art, video performance art and clothes customisation.

Curator and watercolour artist Áine Macken is behind the concept: 10 events running from March to June, designed to make art accessible to everyone, to “shake up the concept of what an average art class should be and turn each attendee into an exhibited artist.” (more…)

Roxy Rhinestone as a naughty Snow White at the Dublin session of Dr Sketchy’s, March 31st 2012

If you’ve always wanted to try drawing and sketching but are put off by the dreaded “art”word and its expectations, why not try “anti-art”?

Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School was set-up in a dive bar in Brooklyn in 2005 by New York girl Molly Crabapple, a self-proclaimed “22 year old art school dropout” who had also worked as an art model herself.

“She was tired of the sterile classrooms and quiet settings, where the artists drawing had almost no interaction with the models and models were expected to be devoid of personality,” says Melissa Dowell who coordinates the New York branch.

Melissa explains that the ethos of the group is to hire as many alternative performers as possible; burlesque performers, fetish models, drag queens/kings, sideshow performers, contortionists, derby girls and more. Participants are a diverse bunch, men and women, seasoned artists and first-time drawers.

“Artists love it as an addition to their usual studies, where they can let their hair down and relax when drawing,” says Melissa. “We like to promote ourselves as an alternative, not a replacement, to traditional life drawing and we’ve found the community to be incredibly inclusive of our work.” (more…)

Somewhere in Dublin, a furry black and white gorilla may or may not still be crouching along the bottom of a dark grey wall, holding a paintbrush dripping with fluorescent pink paint. He’s admiring his guerrilla gorilla handywork. And on the bottom right, three letters: ADW.

When ADW calls me he sounds exhausted and admits to having stayed up all night completing this latest “illegal” outdoor piece. He placed the gorilla on “his” wall, near the Portobello bridge, where he first put up the now infamous Bertie Tiger stencil, depicting former boom-time Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sporting the face of the now defunct Irish celtic tiger.

ADW is an Irish stencil and sometimes guerilla street artist, originally from Dublin. His irreverent designs started popping up on the walls of Dublin over the last few years, identified with those three letters at the bottom of gratingly ironic images with politically charged messages.

First, she set up the “Ormond Studios” on Ormond Quay in Dublin with a group of friends after her graduation in 2009 and acted as their chairperson, before leaving to launch her next venture: “Art for Art’s Sake”.

“Art for Art’s Sake” is an online space for emerging contemporary artists with links to Ireland. The unique feature of the site is its virtual gallery, which will showcases all types of art, from painting to performance art. The site currently features art by artists Adam Gibney, Bláthnaid Ní Mhurchú, Louise Farrelly and Alan Corbett and the virtual gallery is hosting an exhibition by Meadhbh O’Connor. (more…)